What Is Public History?
Public History is a field of history that involves engaging with the general public and making historical facts/knowledge accessible to their audience. Public History involves the practice of history in public settings, such as archives, historical sites, and community organizations. Public Historians work to present historical events/narratives in ways that can speak to a diverse audience.
Historians have a special way of looking at human interractions and has an intentional way of explaining/disecting them. A person may ask a question as to how or why people evolve overtime. In Public History: Its Origins, Nature, and Prospects Robert Kelley mentions public history being “eesemtial in every kind of immediate, practical situation” (Kelley 1978). it is not just random historical moments when people said or did something, it is historical events or entire movements that (can or) has changed a person’s way of life. In Public History, a historian will answer questions posed by other people. Serving as a consultant, a professional, or a member of the staff.
What Is An Effect of Public History?
The local effect of Public History can be the preserving and sharing of unique stories and experiences of a community in order to inform or even prevent an event from repeating itself. Public History can also bring cultural acceptance and wareness by helping people to further or better understand their heritage and their contributions within those diverse groups. Pereserving collective memories in way of oral history can engage society and encourage active participation and investments into keeping their collective history alive. For example Black History Month can be an effect of Public History as African Americans aim to make their history accesssible and relevant to the public. It was established to recognize and celebrate the contributions of African Americans to history, which consistantly stays overlooked or marginalized in mainstream historical narratives.